Traders in West Street, Drogheda, told the town council yesterday that 76 jobs have been lost since work to pedestrianise the street began 12 weeks ago.
The €7 million programme to pedestrianise the main shopping area has turned the street into a building site and had a negative impact on business and shoppers.
Retailers addressed local councillors and town officials and told them of their concerns for the future of some of the smaller shops if the situation was not remedied.
"Some employers are negotiating to put staff on shorter working weeks and if this goes on we estimate €1.5 million will be lost in wages; this is about ordinary people who will have financial problems as a result," said Jim Corcoran of the retailers committee of the Drogheda Chamber of Commerce.
He said it was employer loyalty to long-term staff that "is keeping a lid on this figure but the situation cannot continue. Some 20 to 60 per cent of turnover has been lost in some trades and we will have closures."
He was addressing Drogheda borough councillors earlier this week. Just a few hours earlier members of the Mandate trade union had outlined to the town clerk its concerns about the impact of the improvement works on their members and their jobs.
Yesterday SuperValu, which is accessed via West Street, negotiated a 40 per cent reduction in working hours for its staff.
West Street was known as the "golden mile" in Drogheda as it was the primary retailing location in the town. However, the past year has seen the opening of two new shopping centres just a few minutes' walk away.
The retailers had also seen Aldi open in the past month and this had led to there not being "a level playing pitch for the competition", according to councillor Paul Bell (FG).
"This is wreaking more havoc on the town centre than Cromwell did," quipped Cllr Frank Maher (FF).
However, town clerk Des Foley refused calls for the contract with construction group SIAC to be renegotiated to allow for longer working hours, including extended weekend work.
The contract hours are from 7.30am-5.30pm weekdays and until noon on Saturday. The council is funding the programme from its own estimates.
As such "it is not possible to change the hours without incurring significant costs," Mr Foley told councillors. Admitting it has moved "quite slowly to date", he said that it was just 12 weeks into a 12-month contract. As part of that contract the street must be open for Christmas shopping from December 8th for a month, he told the retailers.